By Jerry Harkavy,Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND – A registered Maine guide from Fryeburg won a small victory Tuesday when the state supreme court threw out three of his nine convictions arising from an undercover investigation nearly three years ago.

But in addressing the larger issue, the justices said they were unconvinced that the conduct of the warden who undertook the probe by posing as a hunter from Pennsylvania was so outrageous as to require that the entire case against Lawrence Perry be dismissed.

Perry, a veteran guide in his late 50s, was charged with 32 offenses, three of which were dismissed before the case went to the jury in Oxford County Superior Court. After three days of deliberations, jurors acquitted Perry of all but nine of the remaining offenses.

Perry’s lawyer, William Maselli of Portland, had argued at trial that his client was a victim of entrapment. He said Tuesday that the decision by the Supreme Judicial Court was not unexpected and he did not rule out taking the issue before the federal courts.

“This case goes beyond entrapment. It goes to illegal conduct by the investigator,” said Maselli, who planned to meet with his client to determine their next step.

Tom Santaguida, chief of the Maine Warden Service, applauded the justices’ decision.

“We are pleased that the court upheld the majority of convictions, including the most serious, which of course was our focus; and that Lawrence Perry will be held accountable for believing the state’s fish and wildlife laws did not apply to him,” Santaguida said.

Perry had argued that the warden, William Livezey, drank alcoholic beverages with targets of his investigation and tried to incite them to break the law. Fifteen hunters were issued summonses or were arrested following the undercover operation; Perry was the only one who took the case to trial.

The supreme court acknowledged that Livezey sought to ingratiate himself with Perry and Perry’s friends, but “we are not convinced that the warden’s conduct was so outrageous that due process requires a dismissal of all charges.”

The justices ordered that the case be sent back to the trial court for re-sentencing. Perry was fined a total of $4,690 and sentenced to the mandatory minimum of three days in jail for illegal possession of a deer killed at night.

Among the convictions set aside by the court was a guide license violation for knowingly assisting a client in violating fish and game laws by traveling into New Hampshire with a bear.

Perry admitted crossing the state line because the most direct route between the place where the bear was shot and the nearest tagging station was on Route 113, which veers into New Hampshire for a short distance before returning to Maine.

The court concluded that on the date in question, Sept. 15, 2003, it was not a crime to transport a bear into New Hampshire.

Perry’s conviction for hunting without hunter orange clothing was thrown out because the offense was a civil violation and not a crime.

The justices also set aside a conviction for having a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle because the evidence against Perry was insufficient except as an accomplice, and the accomplice liability instruction was erroneous.

Convictions upheld by the court included unlawfully hunting bear with dogs, a closed season violation, another loaded firearm conviction, violating a commissioner’s rule, illegal possession of a deer killed at night and driving deer.

The charges against Perry were brought after Livezey posed as a hunter named Bill Moyer and paid $1,000 cash for a week of hunting in the fall of 2003 in cornfields and woods near Perry’s home.

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